Video Game

Alright, I’m back and have put more time into the game, and so far, I've been really enjoying it.  This setup of having Jensen near death and needing augmentations to live really helps the story become more believable.  What I mean by that is when you begin the game, after completing the tutorial and the beginning credits have finished, you'll notice the game's HUD (heads-up display)  for the first time.  It makes sense that you can see it now and not before because augmentations were made to all components of Jensen's body including his eyes, because the HUD that you see is what he sees as well.  However, when you climb ladders, the camera shifts into 3^rd person point of view, and the HUD is no longer visible.  This makes perfect sense as you’re not viewing the world through Jensen’s eyes any longer.  When you duck behind cover or hide around a corner, though, and you put yourself back into 3^rd person view, the HUD is still visible.  This, to me, doesn’t make much sense as far as creating the overall experience, but it certainly doesn’t ruin my gameplay either.   I’m playing the game at a 1920x1080 resolution, and the HUD really hasn’t been a hindrance; in fact, even though a lot can be conveyed on the screen at one time as compared to other games where the HUD tends to take up a lot of screen space, Deus Ex does a better job of maintaining the developer’s created atmosphere.

I'm going to be very upfront about this.  I paid $20 for the full PC version of Plants vs. Zombies.

Now, you can give me a hard time about this--you certainly won't be the first, and you probably won't be the last.  And when I heard recently that the game had gone on sale for very cheaply, I myself was a bit sad that I hadn't gotten such a good deal.

But I will tell you something else.  I don't begrudge a single penny of that $20.

Baldur's Gate is a landmark in computer roleplaying games. With its initial release in November of 1998 and the expansion (Tales of the Sword Coast) in April of 1999, Black Isle/Bioware put their name on the map. With the ability to create your character from scratch, as well as unprecedented freedom in dialogue and game completion, Baldur's Gate and its expansion makes the work of Bioware and Black Isle seem almost genius.

The story starts you off as a young character with a mysterious side, and as you develop this character (using the 2nd edition rules of Dungeons and Dragons), you meet many NPCs throughout your journey that teach you about yourself and your heritage.  You're able to control up to 6 characters at one time, and you're able to control everything about the characters, including their class and the weapons and armor they have equipped. All these NPCs that you encounter have their own background and class, and you can choose either to support their cause or to leave them behind. Another mage doesn't really go with your party?  Well, just leave him for another point and time in the game.

Let me get the disclaimer out of the way before I go any further.  When the original Deus Ex was released back in 2000, it wasn’t even a blip on my radar.  College was starting and my eyes were squarely on Baldur's Gate 2 and Diablo 2 at the time.  Then came along Deus Ex: Invisible War, the 2003 sequel, and I purposely stayed away from that title, only hearing horrible things about its release including a multitude of bugs, not truly fitting in the atmosphere and world that the original created, etc, etc.  But it’s present day in 2011, and a new game has been released into the series: Deus Ex: Human Revolution. This time it’s a prequel to the original.  This is perfect; I don’t really need to know anything about the previous two games, and I can go into this one fresh.  How will that turn out?  Well, read on and we’ll find out together.  Please understand that spoilers will be mentioned and that each segment of this series will continually unravel different aspects of the game, much like a review, however, a very long winded review.  I’ll explain some side missions, the essence of the overarching story, and go into the details of the different components of the game, namely gameplay, graphics, sound, replay value, and stability.  In this first segment, story will be a large focus as you and I will be introduced to what’s going on.

This week, we're excited to introduce a new feature here at Fantasy Matters--a series of video game reviews written by new contributors Dan Lammert and Luke Rasmussen.  The series is called "Late to the Party," because the games are a few years old, these reviews were originally published on Luke and Dan's own website, PlastikSickness--a website that also features Luke's skills as a DJ and musician.  This website brings together video games, music, zombies, and the apocalypse in a fascinating synthesis of geek culture, and it is definitely worth checking out!  Today, we bring you the first review in the series--Luke Rasmussen's look at Left 4 Dead 2.

Santa came a little early and delivered a copy of Left 4 Dead 2. Alright, so it was Dan (sorry to ruin that it wasn't really Santa) but that was great because we spent quite a bit of time going through it. Managed to get through the whole thing as a matter of fact, and it was quite a rush.